


Priorities

by agent_of_weirdness



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: I Don't Even Know, I was definitely drunk when I started writing this, I'm still drunk, What the Hell, two men and a baby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-07 02:56:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11614437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agent_of_weirdness/pseuds/agent_of_weirdness
Summary: An AU where Voldemort’s followers were a little more clever after his defeat on Halloween.





	Priorities

**Author's Note:**

> I've decided to post all the works in progress that I have languishing on my hard drive, in the hopes it will lead to me working on all of them more regularly. If you read my first story on AO3, M. Sue Smith and the Dark Wizard, then you know that I'm terrible about always having long, long hiatuses between updates. 
> 
> This one I have been working on for only a few months. I'm not really sure where I am going with it, but I want to keep going to see.

             

 

 

 

              “Go away.”

              The old man outside his door sighed. “Severus.”

              Severus knew that if he didn’t get up and open the door, Dumbledore would just come in. He hadn’t even tried to ward the little cottage against him. However, his legs seemed very far away, and his feet might as well have been somewhere on the other side of the room. Maybe the other side of the universe.

              The door opened. Severus did not look up. His hands lay in his lap like dead things.

              “Severus?”

              Suddenly there were fingers on his chin pulling his head up, and a bright light shining into his eyes. He tried to shield them but his arms did not seem inclined to obey him.

              “Severus, what have you done?”

              “I brewed some calming draught,” he heard himself answering. “An improved version.”

              “I see,” said Dumbledore mildly, extinguishing the light on the tip of his wand. “Well. That is rather unfortunate.”

              “It is?”

              “Can you tell me exactly _how_ you improved it?”

              “I added an extra drop of belladonna. And a dash of infusion of wormwood. And a very large amount of cannabis.”

              Dumbledore sighed again. “Just one extra drop of belladonna?”

              “Yes.” Severus had thought about using more. But at the last minute, fear had made him put down the dropper after the fourth drop; what if he was wrong? What if death was not nothingness? What if their souls did go somewhere afterwards, unlikely as it seemed?

              And what if she was there, waiting for him?

              He could not face her.

              So instead, he had gotten cataclysmically stoned, thinking maybe he might get lucky and some Death Eaters would find him and take revenge, even though he knew Dumbledore wouldn’t let it happen. Ironically, the old man had finally learned caution, now that it was too late to matter.

              Dumbledore laid a hand on his shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze. Severus was surprised; both at the gesture and at the revelation that he was still capable of feeling surprised after how much potion he’d taken.

              “Not as bad as I initially feared, but still, not ideal.”

              “Why?”

              “I have some news. Perhaps you are in no fit state to hear it. On the other hand, perhaps you are in a better state to hear it now than you will be later.”

              Severus almost smiled. “What, am I going to Azkaban again?”

              “Nothing of the sort. I am sorry to tell you that Petunia Dursley, née Evans, has been murdered. Along with her husband Vernon, and her infant son, Dudley.”

              Severus frowned. “Tuney? Somebody murdered Tuney?”

              Dumbledore sat in the chair opposite the sofa Severus was slumped upon and rubbed wearily at the marks left on the bridge of his nose from his half-moon spectacles. “Yes.”

              Severus felt a thin thread of curiosity stirring, despite himself. “Why are you telling me this?”

              “If you will recall, the Dursleys, as Lily’s closest living relatives, had taken little Harry into their home.”

              “And? What does that have to do with me?”

              “Earlier this evening, just after sunset, a Muggle man showed up on their doorstep. It seems he worked at the same company as Vernon Dursley. He made some sort of excuse about needing to discuss work with Dursley, and Petunia invited him inside. Once he was there, he stabbed her, and her husband when he came to her defense. And then, the child.”

              Severus frowned. “You said…the baby was there. Her baby.”

Dumbledore smoothed his beard. “Harry was there, yes. He is unharmed. It appears that the Dursleys had placed his cot inside the cupboard under the stairs in their home. He must have been sleeping. The Muggle man never knew he was there.

“I had wards on the property to notify me in the event of any disturbance, but help arrived too late for the Dursleys. The man was terrified when I and a few Order members appeared and he immediately confessed everything. He told me that a group of oddly-dressed men and one woman broke into his home as he and his family were sitting down to dinner and took them hostage. They gave him a knife, side-along apparated him to just beyond the wards on the Dursley house, and told him that if he did not kill the Dursleys and the baby, they would kill his family. He assumed they meant their son Dudley, as apparently Vernon Dursley had not told anyone at his office about his orphaned nephew.

“He also told me that these people had all been carrying odd sticks like the one I was holding, and that when they pointed these at his wife and children, they began to scream in agony.”

“Bellatrix,” Severus whispered.

“She and the Lestrange brothers were found at the Muggle man’s home. Because the Lestranges did not use any magic on him directly, he was able to enter the Dursley’s home despite the magical protections in place.  The Aurors were able to apprehend them, but not in time to save the man’s family. We don’t know yet how they found out about the Dursleys, or how they knew that a wizard would not be able to pass through the wards but a Muggle could. Yet it seems their information was incomplete. They did not know the Dursleys had two children in the house.”

Severus stared at Dumbledore. “What about her baby?” he heard himself say when it seemed that Dumbledore was not going to continue.

“He is safe, as I said. Hagrid is with him, just outside.”

This seemed like a questionable definition of “safe” to Severus, but to his relief he did not say so aloud. Maybe the potion was beginning to wear off.

“Wait,” he said, finally registering the full meaning of Dumbledore’s last words. “You brought him here with you?”

Dumbledore crossed his legs and smoothed his beard, avoiding Severus’s eye. “Yes. That brings me to the rest of my news.”

Stoned as he was, Severus could still connect the dots. “No. You cannot be serious.”

Dumbledore fixed him suddenly with those unnerving blue eyes that saw far too much. “I am extremely serious. Lily Potter was very clear in her will. In the event that Sirius Black was…unable to act as Harry’s godfather, she wanted Harry to be placed in your care.”

“No. That’s not possible.”

Dumbledore produced a folded sheet of parchment from his robes, and an envelope. “Here. Read it for yourself, Severus.”

When Severus didn’t reach for the parchment, Dumbledore placed it in his hand. With a great deal of foreboding, especially considering how dulled his emotions were by the potion, Severus looked down at the brief letter, written in a hand as familiar as his own, and started to read.

 

 

_Severus,_

_I know you’ve never thought of having any children. But you are my oldest friend, and even though we haven’t spoken in years I haven’t stopped thinking of you, and I know you haven’t forgotten me either. I know it was you who hexed that Death Eater who almost got me last September. I recognized you, even under the cowl and mask. You saved my life that night. And Dumbledore won’t confirm or deny it, but I’m pretty sure the spy he’s been getting information from is you, too._

_So if things go as badly as I’m afraid they might, you might be the only one left who can protect Harry. It doesn’t matter what happens to me. So long as I know that he’s safe, that he’s looked after, if James and I and Sirius don’t survive. It’s amazing, Sev, how having a child makes your priorities so clear. He’s the most important thing in the world to me. Otherwise I wouldn’t be asking you this, not after how long we’ve let things between us lie._

_If you ever loved me, Severus, if you still count me as a friend even after everything, please. Please keep him safe for me. Please._

_Lily_


End file.
